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Office 365 on MacOS Read-Only Issue - Knowledgebase / Software / Microsoft Office - OIT Service Center

Office 365 on MacOS Read-Only Issue

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If you encounter a “read-only mode” message upon launching any Microsoft Office 365 apps:

1.  Sign out and sign back in with your Brown account in the Microsoft format (jcarberr@ad.brown.edu)

Otherwise try the following steps:

2.  Launch each Office app installed on your Mac, click on the application name (eg Word) menu and choose Sign Out. Then quit the application.

  • Open Finder, click on the Go menu item and choose Go to Folder
  • In the dialog box, type: ~/Library
  • Click on the Group Containers folder
  • Locate the following three files/folders and move them to Trash:
  • UBF8T346G9.ms
  • UBF8T346G9.Office
  • UBF8T346G9.OfficeOsfWebHost
  • Empty the Trash and launch an Office application, sign in with your username in the Microsoft format (jcarberr@ad.brown.edu) and validate if you can now edit documents.

3. Fully uninstall all Office 365 apps by following this Microsoft article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot-office-for-mac-issues-by-completely-uninstalling-before-you-reinstall-ec3aa66e-6a76-451f-9d35-cba2e14e94c0


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